Department To Issue Guidelines on School Uniforms

Proponents of school-uniform policies got another boost as President
Clinton ordered the Department of Education to distribute manuals on
the subject to the nation's 15,000 school districts.

The six-page document, intended as a road map for districts
interested in adopting uniform dress codes for students, provides
details of model programs and spells out ways for district leaders to
usher in legal and workable programs.

"If student uniforms can help deter school violence, promote
discipline, and foster a better learning environment, then we should
offer our strong support to the schools and parents that try them," Mr.
Clinton wrote last month in a memorandum to Secretary of Education
Richard W. Riley.

Mr. Clinton announced the publication during his weekly radio
address on Feb. 24 and then again later that day during a speech at a
middle school in Long Beach, Calif., the first district in the nation
to require elementary and middle schools students to dress in uniform
fashion.

In his speech, President Clinton praised school officials and
students in the 83,000-student district for creating a safer, more
disciplined environment that focuses on learning.

The Southern California district registered a dramatic improvement
in discipline problems after it adopted the policy last year. Physical
fights between students dropped by 51 percent from the previous year,
and the district reported 32 fewer suspensions. (See Education Week,
Feb. 14, 1996.)

On the Campaign Trail

The publication of the federal guide and Mr. Clinton's Long Beach
trip came just weeks after the president hailed student uniforms as a
way to promote order in schools in his State of the Union Address. (See
Education Week, Jan. 31, 1996.)

According to a White House adviser, public response to Mr. Clinton's
endorsement of uniforms in his speech to Congress was so positive that
the administration decided to push the idea during the president's
visit to California last month.

"We were surprised about the amount of attention that the proposal
generated," said Jeremy Ben-Ami, a domestic-policy adviser to the
president. "Everything that we've heard on this issue has been
positive."

Mr. Ben-Ami was quick to add, however, that Mr. Clinton's focus on
safety and discipline in schools is not new. The president has
supported the federal safe- and drug-free-schools program, the
gun-free-schools initiative, and other school-safety programs, he
said.

But some political observers suggest that Mr. Clinton has chosen to
highlight the school-uniform issue in this election year because it
strikes a politically moderate chord. By discussing the need to return
to traditional values of dress and demeanor, they say, President
Clinton is moving into an arena that has long been the domain of
Republican politicians.

Campaign observers also suggest that the president finds the issue
appealing because it allows him to advance a popular idea that doesn't
involve an expensive, intrusive federal program.

"It must look very nice to people at the White House in that it's
popular and won't cost anything," said Stephen Hess, a senior fellow at
the Brookings Institution, a centrist Washington-based think tank. "It
strikes me that if this wasn't a re-election year, we might have heard
less about this."

Still, many educators seem to share Mr. Clinton's support for school
uniforms.

Some 70 percent of middle and secondary school principals believe
that requiring students to wear uniforms to school would reduce violent
incidents and discipline problems, according to a survey of 5,500
principals who attended the National Association of Secondary School
Principals' annual conference last week.

Nearly 60 percent of the principals surveyed also thought mandatory
dress codes would lead to greater academic achievement.

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